Chapter 1185: As Everyone Knows, an Organization Runs on Undercover Agents

“Cough, cough… Don’t panic! Hold the formation! There are only a few streets here, our people are all around them, they’re not flying out of here!”

Times have changed, Kuri now is nothing like the Kuri of back then. Out in the suburbs earlier, they hadn’t really felt how much the roads had changed.

When they first entered the city, no one was chasing them from behind, so they could take their time feeling their way around and wouldn’t get lost.

Later they spotted the signal flare from the area where Momonosuke was, and knew something had definitely gone wrong there, but by then someone was already investigating the “group fraud” incident, forcing them to avoid the main streets.

But before they could circle around, Queen, who wanted to eliminate anything that might affect his quality of life, had already rushed over and sent back news about Momonosuke, and Kuri went straight into lockdown.

The Shinsengumi are just the public security force of Wano Kuni; the average member isn’t that strong. They’re enough to maintain domestic order, but when it comes to Oden’s Household Attendants they can only rely on numbers.

They may look like ordinary Household Attendants, but some of them have extremely bizarre vitality, to the point they can take Kaidou’s club head-on with their skulls and not die, downright freakish.

Yes, that’s this bizarre vitality creature called Kinemon. Before Luffy Awakened and turned into Nika, taking one hit from the club would have him rolling his eyes white, yet Kinemon could rely on his body to wake up again in an extremely short time—this is even with 20 years less training.

It really makes one wonder if he Awakened the Garb-Garb Fruit and developed some kind of Resurrection Armor-type garment.

It’s just that this over-the-top vitality doesn’t equal his combat strength. Under mass pursuit and encirclement, and with even ordinary residents reporting them on sight, they were quickly driven into a dead end and forced into a do-or-die situation.

Because he’s an ability user, Raizo can carry way more tools than other Ninja. A large number of smoke bombs blocked the vision of the surrounding blockers; for most people, losing their line of sight is a big headache.

“All of you move! What kind of panic-stricken mess is this! You call this little trickery something?!”

Hotei in the rear pushed aside the people blocking in front, his build swelling slightly. A bony mask covered his face, leaving only two triangular holes at the eyes, while his fluffy hair spilled out from behind.

Marowak, a Ground Type bone-loving Pokemon, the evolved form of Cubone.

A Bone Stick appeared in each of his hands; after tightening his grip slightly, he threw them forward.

The bones in their hands are their weapons. Since Hotei was originally Dual-Sword Style, his bones are also two in number. After he gained this ability, he never carried blades on him again.

The bones born together with his ability are way more convenient than ordinary Samurai Blades and far easier to control.

The Bone Sticks spun at high speed through the smoke, the vortex they raised dispersing the smoke released by the bombs, revealing the three who’d been planning to retreat.

And the Bone Sticks didn’t stop there; instead, they kept flying forward.

Shing! Clang!

Kanjuro and Kinemon each blocked one Bone Stick. They might look like ordinary bones, but their hardness was no less than the swords in their hands, and the force packed inside them was also outrageous.

After they strained to knock them aside, the Bone Sticks, as if being controlled, once again flew back into Hotei’s hands.

Bone Boomerang, a signature move of the Marowak line. Most of this kind of Pokemon’s power lies in the Bone Sticks in their hands; if they lose them, their combat strength plummets.

“You bastard… Hotei?”

Even though his face was covered by that weird bone mask, Kinemon still recognized him from his voice and the shape of his hair. They’d dealt with each other before, and their relationship was anything but friendly.

Strictly speaking, back then they were both street punks—calling them ronin is putting it nicely.

Later Kinemon pledged himself to Oden, while Hotei kept hanging around the streets for a while longer, and in the end chose to defect when the Hundred Beasts were purging public order issues in Wano Kuni.

It’s just that once Kinemon became one of Oden’s Household Attendants, they basically stopped crossing paths. As a Household Attendant, he couldn’t keep brawling in the streets like before.

“Unbelievable, unbelievable, I didn’t expect Lord Kinemon to still remember me. Then again, for you, twenty years ago was basically just yesterday.”

No contact doesn’t mean zero contact. After Kinemon was accepted by Oden as a Household Attendant, his status changed drastically, and his pride shot up too.

Once his lifestyle changed, he stopped roaming the streets with his old underlings, and even when he ran into former turf rivals, there was a hint of scorn in his eyes. In Kinemon’s view, the title of Household Attendant already meant they were people from two different worlds.

“You bastard, as someone from Wano Kuni you actually joined the Hundred Beasts to persecute Wano Kuni!”

“What the hell are you babbling about? Is your brain broken? If you’re that loyal, why didn’t you follow Lord Oden and die with him?”

The Hundred Beasts never went out of their way to smear Oden. Hiyori is also a General now, so at least in words Hotei still speaks of him with respect.

“Bastard… Foxfire Style!”

The twin blades clashed, torrents of flame coiling around Kinemon’s blades as he charged straight at Hotei. Hotei clearly looked like the boss here; chances are only by taking him down could they move on with their plan.

“You loser, stop acting all high and mighty! Don’t think just because you became a Demon Mage that you can change the ending!”